When we think of landscape painting, we always have a landscape in mind - rolling green hills, maybe mountains, usually trees - in short something suitably idyllic and pastoral.

Penarth-born artist Mark Samuel, despite being raised within sketching distance of the Vale of Glamorgan, is captivated by very different views.

His paintings, while displaying a suitable reverence for and mastery of his craft, are of urban landscapes.

He depicts empty advertising hoardings and a modern semi on Cowbridge Road in Cardiff with the same care Monet lavished on his lilies, and a row of unremarkable Georgian houses near the Bay are bathed and transformed by gentle light falling upon them like snow.

Samuel, born in 1956, studied art in Cardiff and Stourbridge but spent years developing his skills before his first solo show at the Martin Tinney Gallery in 1998.

That was an immediate critical and commercial success, as was his second show in 1999, which all but sold out on opening night.

He names English impressionist Walter Sickert as an influence but his work more obviously resembles that of American Edward Hopper, who also made his name depicting mundane scenes from unusual perspectives and with uncanny luminosity.

Samuel's paintings make us look again at buildings both beautiful and unremarkable, using a subtle palette to create strikingly atmospheric images without any hint of sentimentality.

This is only his third exhibition and everything is for sale, with prices ranging from £800 to £2,000.

Mark Samuel: New Paintings opens today at the Martin Tinney Gallery, Cardiff, and runs until November 23.

The gallery is open from 10am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and from 10am to 5pm on Saturdays.